Physical Health South Africa Project #7649

Support 80 abandoned children in Cape Town

by FIKELELA AIDS PROJECT

Project Report | May 6, 2022
Fikelela Child & Youth Care Centre May 2022

By Beverley Hendricks | Coordinator

It is such a joy to be able to share progress with the Children at Fikelela in Khayelitsha. Our current number of children at the home are 36 consisting of 18 girls and 18 boys aged birth to 11 years. The health of the children is relatively good as we do daily checks with their ears, eyes and noses to ensure that they do not present any cold or flu symptoms.

Two of our children were admitted to hospital with gastroenteritis and were well after a couple of days of admission. We have also discovered that some of our children are a bit slow in their development. At 8 months they are supposed to be crawling and lifting their heads and with the assistance of the Nurse and special exercises we can assist them with progress.

13 of our children attend School every day and we now must do our Jerry program over weekends as we don’t wish to overload them. Jerry is their favourite story as they get to be creative with Jerry, they are allowed to share what they experience at school with friends and bring it into the Jerry story line. The talking flower and the star are extremely helpful with disciplining the children as everybody wants to share at the same time. Jerry has turned their confidence levels around they no longer just sit and absorb they want to tell their stories. They listen more attentively because of the star and the talking flower as they know they must hold it in their hands before they are allowed to speak.

Our older boy Mr L is 11 years of age, and he has become the role model for the rest of the boys, he proudly engages with them about body pride, respecting each other especially around cultures, learning from each other. Playing with friends at the school playground is also a session that we often share with the children as we want them to know they are special and that they do have a sense of belonging.

Thank you to all our Donors for touching our lives and making a difference to our world. We might have been abandoned, abused, neglected, infected or affected by HIV & AIDS however, we are so grateful to all of you for donating as Fikelela assists us to turn our lives around and to express ourselves and be happy. THANK YOU

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Jan 6, 2022
Fikelela Child & Youth Care Centre Jan 2022

By Beverley Hendricks | Coordinator

Wishing all of our donors a blessed 2022 and a huge thank you from our beneficiaries for all of your support.

As we have journeyed during 2021 we are extremely grateful for every donation we have received. It is the most challenging area of our work trying to source new donors and donations. Keep us inspired and motivated.

With your kind assistance we have been able to achieve the following with the Children at Fikelela.

The Jerry Giraffe program forms part of our daily stimulation play, learn and engage with each other. So whether Jerry is used as identifying the colour yellow, or the talking flower as the discipline tool and the star for affirming our children they are very familiar with the resources.

As children leave the home and are reunified or even fostered it is very encouraging for us to receive feedback from family wanting to know more about Jerry and the talking flower and the star.

Children listen more attentively and they also encourage the naughty ones and the new ones to pay attention to the story line of Jerry.

Children are affirmed and acknowledged daily, they know that they are very special and the favorite song to sing is I am special, I am special so are you. They know how to behave towards each other as well as to the Carers and everyone else who engages with them. Homework is accomplished a lot better now as they love their story telling time with Jerry and other books.

Our children who are receiving occupational therapy has also improved remarkably as they participate in the Jerry sessions.

The facility Manager Lulamile Mzuzu spent some time with the toddlers as he had noticed there was a bit of jealousy around new children arriving at the Centre.

Our plans for the next couple of months is to get all of our Carers at the facility to be trained in the Jerry Child abuse program as it is a good tool to equip them in dealing with the children.

Archbishop Emiratus Desmond Mpilo Tutu says “do your little bit of good where you are, it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelms the world".

With your bits of good you enable us to overwhelm the children.

With much love and appreciation.

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Sep 9, 2021
Fikelela Child & Youth Care Centre Sept 2021

By Beverley Hendricks | Coordinator

We are proud to share our report with all of our Donors and supporters through the GlobalGiving platform.

Despite the challenges that we are all experiencing globally with Covid 19 we have also had to manage ourselves very differently and apply ourselves in a practical and creative way.

Nelson Mandela quote: Together as a nation, we have the obligation to put sunshine into the hearts of our little ones. They are our precious possessions. They deserve what happiness life can offer.

On a daily basis all of the Children at Fikelela Child and Youth Care Centre needs to be screened, their temperatures are taken and recorded and this records are sent to the Department of Social Development weekly on a Thursday. This has created extra work for us and our Carers and at the same time it has created an opportunity for us to realize the importance of each and every child at our facility.

It is at a time like this where we are able to sing with them, cuddle and tickle them as we prepare to take the temperatures, we get the older children to assist us with gathering them together in little groups so that we do not miss out on any one child.

We line them up and do our story telling on Jerry Giraffe, the importance of loving them and making them feel extra special, we share from the book how precious they all are and how important they are to us at Fikelela.

This quarter we used our Jerry Giraffe resource pack the Jerry, with the talking flower and the star in the bright yellow colour was used to teach the children about the colour yellow and also to teach them to count how many objects they could see around them. The children are very excited when Jerry visits as they love the bright yellow colour of the toys and the beautiful sunshine that emanates from their smiles and laughter.

With the intake of new children at the facility the children love singing the song from the Jerry program “I am special, I am special, so are you, so are you, very very special, very very special, so are you, so are you.

Thank you for making us feel special and for all of your love and support and for the opportunity to contribute to our happiness. As part of their journey of happiness the children were taken to the Blue train park in Mouille Point and they loved the train ride and playing on the play park and all of the creative sports equipment.

Blessings always,

Beverley Hendricks

Co-ordinator

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